sister eunice shriver, who died just weeks ago. kathleen kennedy townsend, the he wouldest child of his brother, robert f. kennedy. two of his closest colleagues in the senate, fellow senator from massachusetts john kerry and chris dodd of connecticut. plus, democratic strategist bob shrum, longtime political advisor to the senator who helped write his famous speech of the 1980 democratic national convention. >> the work goes on. the cause endures. the hope still lives. and the dream shall never die. >> and presidential historian doris kearns goodwin who authored "the fitzgeralds and the kennedys." authored "the fitzgeralds and the kennedys." but first it has been a weekend filled with tributes and remembrances as ted kennedy's life was celebrated, his loss mourned and his body laid to rest. ♪

friday evening after the moving memorial service in boston, i sat down at the kennedy library with his niece maria shriver and began by asking her what the tremendous outpouring from the public meant to her and her family. >> i think that it's extraordinary. i think driving from hyannis port to boston, it was so moving to see people standing along the freeway gathered on bridges, entire families, many in tears. boys with their hands over their hearts saluting. it was a great piece of american history that you were able to drive by, and this was a week day in the middle of the day, so people obviously had to miss work, take vacation, park their cars and wait to just watch a hearse go by, and i thought it

was so generous of the people and so moving. it's something i think teddy would have been so thrilled by and also humbled by. >> it's interesting for the past several days we hear so much about the career, about the issues, about the passion. yet, at this memorial service you heard about the man, and you understood that public service for him was about other people, about serving people. >> well, teddy was, i think, known to the people who knew him -- his heart was extraordinary. he was was the most compassionate and empathetic man. and i think he worked that way because he himself knew pain, knew struggle, abandonment. he knew all of the things that pains a human being. so when he saw other human beings in pain, or where their

character was questioned or they had loss, he was always the first person to reach out, and nobody does that who hasn't felt that way themselves. i think that was something that people often overlooked about him, didn't understand about him. but this was a man who had fought a lot, struggled a lot, who had been through a lot, and he understood when other people also went will you a lot. and i think you have that outpouring because people, regular people, understood that about him. they saw through all of the labels. they saw through, you know, what people wrote. they saw this was a man who understood family, who understood struggle, who understood triumph and who understand, you know, weaknesses. we all have that. i think rarely do you see it so openly in a public person like you saw with teddy. >> what has it been like as you watch all of this coverage and

they're watching the family, and wondering how everybody is. the president said this wasn't unexpected, but it was dreaded. how has everybody been doing? >> i think people have often said, well, it wasn't a surprise. well, i think death is always a surprise. i've just gone through two in two weeks, and it's always a surprise, and it's always final, and it's always difficult, and i think people grieve in their own way and their own time. i think teddy was one of those larger than life figures in our family. he was really the center of our family, and he was one of those people that you never expected to die. you just expected him to beat the odds. you expected him to -- i think anybody who has been through cancer knows the ups and downs. one day it's bad. one day it's good. you, i think, always hope that this person is going to beat the odds. >> you he has been called the

rock of the family. and yet you just referred to your mother, who you just lost in the past few weeks. another rock of the family. it's a lot of loss in one time. >> it's a lot of loss. it's a lot of pain, but both of them lived extraordinary lives, and they lived lives that had purpose, meaning, that had a mission. i remember someone once said if you don't have a idea, what do you have? where is your idea? she would always say to me, what are you doing? where is your idea? i think both of these people had great ideas, and they fought their whole lives to make them reality, and i think one of the things that i think is so great about mummy and teddy is the duration of their sight. i think we live in a world today that's about instant success, instant gratification. you fight for something. you expect to get it in a week. both mummy and teddy fought their entire lives, their entire lives.

forty years, 50 users in mummy's case to give people with intellectual disabilities the same rights as everybody else. it took her lifetime to achieve that. teddy fought his entire life for health care and all of the legislation you heard talked about. if he had given up in a year, five years or ten years, when people people wrote him off, none of the things he accomplished would have been accomplished. i think both of them are incredible techlts to how -- testaments to how long this takes, how hard one has to accomplish something, and i think we've lost sight of that in this country and anything whether it's journalism, politics. people expect you to get elected president and solve all the problems immediately. i think if they look at people like teddy or at mummy, you see how long they had to stay in there and keep hammering away and hammering away, and i think that that gives us hope for the people that are disillusioned that they didn't get something done right away. if you look at people like that

and say, wow, they accomplished a lot, but it took a long time. >> you talk about health care. as it got toward the end and you watched what was happening in washington. it's still an unresolved story. did it feel like he was really on the verge of seeing his dream realized? >> i think he thought with the election of barack obama, this country was on the verge of seeing so many of his dreams realized, and i think that will be realized. i think a lot has been written about how much his voice has been missed, and i think it has. i think perhaps just his passing will reinvigorate people to get it done. he gave his life to that, but he gave his life to so many things. he saw so much of what he fought for accomplished. >> there's an image from the convention last year. you wiping tears away as your uncle spoke so movingly about what he cared about about health

care and forcefully as an advocate of barack obama. it was kind of a good-bye and a long good-bye, but he had that next year. what was that final year like? >> well, i think it was for me watching this final year was beautiful because i think there have been a lot of things written about teddy over the years, and it hasn't all been complimentary, and i think for someone to have that kind of love come at you is a very powerful thing. very few people i think ever experience in their lifetime. i think it was a blessing for teddy that he was able to see that his work was appreciated, that his life had been valued, that people understood why he had stayed in the fight. he accepted the love. it's so hard to accept love, and he let it come at him.

i think that was so beautiful that he got to live and see how people appreciated him and people came up to him and thanked him, and he could feel that kind of gratitude. >> he got to experience something his brothers didn't, which is to experience how people felt about him. >> i think very few people -- i think that's another lesson in all of this. i'm a big believer that people rarely know how people feel about them in their lives. we run around in our life all the time and we forget to stop and tell people how important they are and how loved they are and how grateful we are. i think teddy got to see that. right after my mom died, and he wasn't able to come to the funeral, i went over to see him two weeks ago, and i just said to him, i want to thank you for being the most extraordinary brother to my mother. every health incident he was there for my brother, for myself. he was in every emergency room all across this country, every icu room. he came in and cheered her up. i said i have never seen such an extraordinary brother, and i

said i have never seen such an extraordinary uncle. i want to thank you for everything you have done for me, everything you did for my mother and my family, and i love you, and i'm so grateful that i had that moment. i learned that from him, from people leaving too soon. there's never a moment like the moment. teddy understood that. how precious time is. >> there's a wonderful picture we've seen, he was escorting caroline down the aisle. after the wedding, jackie wrote him this note that included, on you, the careful youngest brother befell a hero, sec parents, lost children, desolate lives. you are a hero. everyone is going to make it because you are always there, your love. >> everybody did make it, and we've all made it, and we've all been inspired by his love. i think his example, his inspiration.

i think if you really step back by his whole life, it wasn't perfect, but it was his life, and he was a great patriot. he was a great advocate of public service. he was a great family rock for many families. he was sure we would all feel -- he was really adamant that we would all feel his presence in our lives, and we did. i think, you know, that is a life well lived. it's the life of -- there was a life of a purpose. he lived one. a life of purpose, passion, and meaning. >> he was able to take stock of his life in this final year in a way that he wanted to do it. what do you think that was like for him? >> well, you know, i think you never know. i think he comes and my mother comes from generations that didn't talk much about feelings, but i think

he was an introspective man. and i think he looked at his life and i think he accepted his life as his own. he accepted his triumph and weaknesses, and i think that that's a great sign of strength in any human being that they can accept their whole life. he lived his own life, and he lived a life his parents would have been proud of. i think he worked really hard to make his parents, particularly his mother, proud of him. he worked very hard to make his sisters proud of him. this was a man who really took the concept of family to a whole other level. my children had relationships with him. i don't know any other great uncle that operates like that. in my lifetime. i've never seen it.

>> you told one of his biographers that it was so important for him to know him because it was about the family, it was about the history, it was about what it meant to be irish. >> he really wanted all of us to know about our irish heritage, our public service heritage, but he also wanted us to have fun. he never got down on you when you made a mistake. he was always encouraging. i think that's because of the life he lived. you know, i think he is the youngest of nine kids. he had formidable figures to live up to, and he understood how that weighs on a human being, and i think that's what brought out his empathy and compassion. i think if you go through this city, i met a woman up there tonight who said that her child had been murdered and lost and teddy reached out to her and helped her with legislation and changed her life and gave her purpose and she was

wearing a button of her daughter. i meet people every day that come up to me about teddy, mummy, bobby, jack, my dad. these are all people i say to my kids, do you notice that people turn out not for people who had their goals for making money or who were in search of fame, people turn out for people who want to make the world a better. they never went out to make money. they never went out to get on a reality show and become famous or get on tv. they went out to change the world. people get that. >> there are so many americans who have no connection to your family and, yet, they feel something visceral with the loss of your mother and now the loss of teddy kennedy that it really is the end of such a distinct era for the kennedys. >> well, i think vice president biden addressed that by saying, you know, i don't think this is

the end of the kennedys, but i think that will be written, that it's the end of an era, that the kennedys are finished, and i think really the goal for each human being, whether your name is kennedy, shriver, gregory, or whatever, it's to live your life, the life that you choose, that's in your heart, that's about something bigger than yourself. we'll see. >> there's still a living legacy for a younger generation. >> that's a value. ever since i grew up, ever since i was like four or five, it's like which one are you? are you going to run for president? what are you -- you know, people should be, you know -- teddy lived his life. mommy lived her life. uncle jack and uncle bobby and this whole library is about people who lived their lives and changed the world. i think everybody should have that right.

>> now we are joined here in washington by ted kennedy's close friend and colleague in the senate, john kerry. senator, i'm glad you're here. >> that was a great, great interview. >> well, she had so many personal things to say. >> well, it's hard to do much more than that. >> there's been so much talk in the last few days about ted kennedy, the sailor, and his son said so movingly and told a story about practicing until the dinner was cold on a friday night getting ready to race. his dad said to him, there are other people who are smarter and more talented, but we'll win because we'll work the hardest. you've seen him up close in the senate. how did that translate to his work as a legislator? >> well, he was a very, very astute legislator, and it wasn't that everybody was smarter. teddy was superb as a statistician, tacticiana.

he had an uncanny ability for the ebb and flow in america and a movement of the senate. there is a life in the senate. teddy understood it. so he really knew how to approach his colleagues and knew when the moment was right. i can remember so many times that they say we're going to do this and are you sure? trach your head. is this going to work? you have a sense of how to do it, how to put people in the right place at the right time. he always had an ability to attract superb staff, and we are all of us in the senate dependent on the abilities of our staff. staffs, plural. ted just could get the most out of people. he was always thinking not where where we were, but about where he wanted to wind out and how we were going to get there. it wasn't dissimilar to preparing for the race and to the lessons he taught as kids. >> there were a couple of pictures of you, you and senator kennedy back in 1971.

you had come back from vietnam, you and other veterans were protesting on the mall, and he came to meet with you, and you said that was an important event, and then later in 1985 then senator kerry and a wonderful inscription quoting humphrey bogart at the beginning of a wonderful friendship. what did he teach you about being a politician, about being a senator? >> david, when i first got involved in politics, i thought that politics was just about the issues. you know, you believe this, you believe that, you fight for this, you fight for that. what teddy showed me is that politics -- and this is slightly contrary to what tip o'neil said when he said all politics is local. all politics is personal. that's really what teddy taught a lot of us, i think. it is personal and you ought to have fun doing it. i really learned how to have more fun because of ted kennedyy. you go out and you are awfully serious and you take yourself too seriously. as i quoted in the comments i made on friday, ted said, you

always take the issues seriously but you don't take yourself too seriously. and he really was good at that. i might also comment on one other thing, i was listening to maria, who i thought was so superb. you know, i said on friday that the sweetest of all seasons was a gift of this period of time that we had with teddy, and i think it was because at the convention, at the birthday party here in washington at the kennedy center, at harvard, the forum for his degree, when he went to the white house, when he came to the floor in the senate, there was just this outpouring of love, and it was just very, very moving. very special. he saw that. he felt that. and boy, what a gift both ways. >> he had been giving so much of it over time. he got to experience it. >> maria said he was fighting a lot of that time. there was -- teddy's life was not easy.

there was a long period of time where ted feared for his life. a lot of people don't realize that. i mean, after bobby kennedy was assassinated, ted really believed that he was next, and there were many instances in ways that he tried to protect himself or tried to, you know, guarantee that that didn't happen, but there were struggles. there was a lot of difficulty in facing up to the massive amount of loss, and so many people often comment, how did ted do it? these huge figures. joe during the war. jack as president. bobby as a candidate for president. it all fell on him. his nieces, nephews, and, i mean, what a statement last night on the hill as the dark

dusk clouded around us and the cameras were off and people were just moving away, and just this sea of children surrounding the coffin just heads bowed on it and the roses, you know, on the top of it. it really gave the full meaning to his family importance to the center that he was to his family. >> you said something yourself. you said ted kennedy was a leader, knowing how to carry on for his family and for his colleagues after such tragedy. you now sit with the fact that you are the senior senator from massachusetts. how does that fit? >> i woke up this morning, and i still have trouble believing that he is not there. as maria just said, you have to live your life. don't try to be somebody else. don't go out and try to fill shoes or do something.

just be yourself and fight the fight, as we fought them together over these last years. there are a lot of people in the senate who understand the mission. chris dodd, tom harkin, you know, brown and the countless people that will carry on and, you know, do their best to try to -- you know, the cause endures. the fight goes on. we're going to continue to fight. >> i want to bring in chris dodd who joins us from connecticut. another close friend and colleague of senator kennedy's. i want to ask you about something that was so poignant that came out of the funeral yesterday from his son. he said my dad taught me how to like republicans because he said they are just the kind of patriots, they love this country as much as i do, and they're out there fighting the same kind of fight. yet, your colleague and friend lamented in recent years that it became harder to work across the aisle, that bipartisanship was something that was fading away. what happened?

>> it's not about bipartisanship. i think that has its moments and its peaks and valleys. it's civility in the process more than anything else. there's always been bipartisanship. it's where you know where you are and which body you serve. as john just so eloquently said, he understood the rhythms of the place. we used to tease, david, with new members, are we going to vote on fridays or not? i would say, listen, you find out what ted kennedy is doing on thursday night. if he is heading to hyannis port on thursday night, there will be no votes on friday. i don't care what the leadership tells you. teddy understood what was going to happen in that place better man most. that idea of coming back now after september 8th and we get back into session, if you want to honor teddy's memory, it's to come back and sort of, as i said the other night, sort of put us the

blistering days of august and to enter the cool days of september and start acting like senators again where we respect each other, there are differences. you bring that partisanship to the table. you work out your differences. that's what we're elected to do. that's what teddy understood intimately about the place. it's why he was good at it, as john so well pointed out. he was a tacticiana, a master of the place. he understood it. he also understood his colleagues, and he was willing to listen to them. he paid attention to them. they brought good ideas to the table. if you do all of those thing, then you can achieve the kind of results that teddy achieved and that the senate as a body has achieved historically. and if you abandon civility, then you'll be in trouble. >> senator dodd, you heard maria shriver talking about reinvigorating the talks about health care. how do you think that happens after the hot days of august? >> i think the president has to decide in the sense he has to really step up and frame this for us. the leadership can do it. harry reid, i think, has worked hard. i know max baucus is working hard on the finance committee.

we put a bill back together in july, as you know, david. teddy's committee, which i was asked to chair temporarily for him. a good bill, by the way. it was 300 amendments as part of that effort. most of them technical, but many are substantive. that bill has been sitting will. we're ready to work on that along with the finance committee and to move forward. that's what needs to happen here. my belief is that if we can get these bills together and sit down with each other, we can produce a strong vibrant, vitally needed health care reform legislation of accessibility, of course, quality and affordability. >> i want to get a final thought. first from you senator dodd. as you sit here this morning after all the emotion of the past week, what is the meaning of senator kennedy, the man and the legislator that you are thinking about this morning? >> well, john i think said it very well. one thing that was so difficult. how do you capture 30 years of

friendship in eight or ten minutes? his ability to overcome adversity was stunning to me. i mean, i just -- what he went through and to come back day after day, time after time. he used to say, by the way, we all have our difficulties. whatever you're worried about today, i promise you a year from today you won't remember it. you'll worry about something else a year from now, but you won't worry about this. he brought that kind of vitality to his life that i think is critical for every human being. i don't care what you are doing. each and every one of us has to sort of get up every day and confront your life as it is and make the best of it and be something larger than yourself. make a contribution. that's teddy's message, more than anything else. >> senator dodd, thank you. senator kerry, ted kennedy thought about succession. he thought about who would be in the senate after him. do you think you would like a kennedy to be there? >> sure, but he is not making that decision, and who knows?

that's not what it's about, and i think that was not what his efforts were about. he wanted the vote protected during this critical moment and only for that moment. it wouldn't upset the process of having an election. massachusetts will choose, as it ought to choose, but in the meantime, his cause of a lifetime, health care and other issues of great importance, global climate change, and others will not be adversely impacted by the absence of the vote, and that's critical. can i just say one thing? yesterday driving in, david, it was so stunning these people lining the road, and you couldn't help but think how teddy had made that journey himself down constitution avenue and over to the cemetery and he has been the face of the moments of remembrance, if you will accident for bobby, for jack. you remember him up there with ethyl, with vicky, with joe, and now he is there. it sort of hit us that, you

know, it's a generational shift, but not the end of an era. what ted did -- there was one sign i saw, the people's senator. it was hand scribed. it was such a genuine outpouring of a thank you for fighting for people, and i think if we all remember that and try our best to continue to just stay focused on why we're here, then we'll honor him. >> well said. senator kerry, senator dodd, thank you both very much. we have more here coming up. more on senator kennedy's life and legacy with his niece kathleen kennedy townsend, long-time kennedy advisor bob shrum, and presidential historian doris kearns goodwin, and a special lock back at senator kennedy's 45-year history appearing on this program. it's coming up only on "meet the press." history appearing on this program. it's coming up only on "meet the press." more cash over here!

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more on the late ted kennedy and the highlight of his appearance says spanning 45 years on "meet the press" after this brief commercial break.

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th's right, 105 meals absolutely free. plus, add our auto-delivery discount and free shipping for an even greater value. call or click now. guys, you can do this. just pick up the phone and call. you will lose weight. ted kennedy was the lion of the senate, but he was also the cub of the kennedy family, and it was as a young man, just 30, that he made his very first appearance here on "meet the press." in fact, his mother, rose, wrote a letter in 1965 to this program's then moderator noting her boys john, robert, and teddy each made their debut on the program around the same young age. >> she was a stickler, kept her index box so she knew the facts about every one of us as we were sort of growing up. this was -- i can remember when

my brother was a congressman and on "meet the press." it was in the winter time, and my mother and father brought us all in. this was the biggest thing that's ever happened to any kennedy, and it was always a big deal. >> reporter: a big deal and a test. that's how kennedy's brother, the president, saw it on the eve of ted's debut here in 1962. >> i prepared up in boston. i thought i really had everything under control. then i came to washington to visit my brother over in the white house. it was on a friday or saturday. he said teddy, it was about 5:30 in the afternoon. you said you go over there and sit behind the desk, behind the president's desk, and i'll come on in here, and he said we're going to -- we'll be the panel and ask you some questions. just sitting there made me tremble. they asked you about three questions. i said i'm going back to preparing some more.

at the end of it, he said, teddy needs a little more preparation. >> that first appearance came just three days after kennedy announced his candidacy for the senate seat vacated by his brother john. during the interview, there was already interest in the prospect of a kennedy political dynasty. >> i wonder if you could tell us how you feel about the presence of a family such as yours occupying that number of key positions in american life. >> if you are talking about too many kennedys, you should have talked to my mother and father at the time when they were getting started. >> that issue of a family dynasty would follow him throughout his first campaign. >> all i'm asking is i be judged on my own abilities and the ability in which i would represent and effect a program for our state, and i would certainly be confident that many of the cynics with minds that could be changed. >> less than two years later ted kennedy had to address the future of that dynasty in the wake of his brother's assassination. >> what is the future of the

kennedy family with internal dynamics of the democratic party. >> well, to the extent that we're committed to the ideals and programs of president kennedy and as they have been further supported by president johnson, we're going to do everything we possibly can to dedicate ourselves to the ideals which the president lived and the eradication of hatred and violence which took him away. >> senator kennedy would be a prominent voice on this program for decades. the longest time span of any guest. he voiced support for the war in vietnam early on. >> i support our commitment. it was made sometime ago, but i believe it is fundamental and it is sound. i believe we have to utilize every resource in our power, whether it's military or diplomatic, to see that this commitment is fulfilled. >> reporter: nearly 25 years later he was a fierce critic of the decision to invade iraq.

>> nuclear weapons. tie them to al qaeda. that's the distortion, that's the misrepresentation, that's the lie. >> reporter: kennedy appeared when he had something important to say on issues like health care. >> we now have a financing system that awards sickness and illness in the paying in the fee for service program. we ought to provide financial incentives for keeping people healthy rather than treating them when they're ill and sick. we can save billions of dollars on it. that kind of an alternative i think we ought to be addressing. we haven't. >> reporter: always a fierce advocate for his issues, but early on much more coy about his ambition. >> do you hope to someday run for president? >> well, i would say that having seen the problems of my brother, i just wonder whether that seeking that job is really worth it. i would hope to effectively be able to be a public service to

the people in my home state and to effect their interest in the constructive way. >> reporter: years later he did run, and as a candidate, he was asked his fitness for office in the wake of the accident at chappaquiddick. >> the fact of the matter is i have been impacted over the course of my life by a series of crisis, by a series of tragedies. i lost my brothers under the most trying and tragic circumstances. i have also faced the illness and sickness of a child that's been impacted by cancer. i've had other tragedies in my life. i have responded to those challenges by, one, acting responsibly, and, two, by the continuing commitment that i have to public service. >> after that 1980 bid, kennedy reflected on the campaign. >> i'm the first to acknowledge that we did make mistakes, and

there have been inadequacies in my campaign. i i suppose even in my own performance during the course of the campaign, which i am quite prepared to acknowledge. >> reporter: years later kennedy addressed that one elusive goal and his life's work. >> do you regret having never been elected president? >> well, i fought for it and didn't make it. i would have liked to certainly at the time but i entered the senate. i love the senate. i plan to stay there until i get the hang of it. >> i think we most agree he got the hang of it over time. we are now joined by ted kennedy's niece kathleen kennedy townsend, presidential historian doris kearns goodwin, and the senator's longtime presidential adviser, bob shrum. kathleen, our deepest sympathies, and we're very thankful you're here this morning to share your thoughts where. >> well, thank you. i want to thank all of the people across the country and really the world who have shown outpouring of love and affection

and thanks to my uncle. i want to also say vickie has done an extraordinary job over the last few days. >> you see that tape. just on this program, the legacy on this program is really something. >> it's extraordinary because all the time, as he said, despite the tragedy, despite his own mistakes, he says you can keep fighting. i think, you know, as a niece and member of this family, it was important for all of us to see this -- our uncle in the toughest times never giving up and saying to each of us you can do it too. inspiring us and helping us and building us. i'm telling you, you know, we were talking earlier in the greenroom about how it is tough not to have a father. there's a real loss in not having that. he came through and he really reached out and embraced my

family and john and caroline. >> doris, we talk about legacy. and as a historian, you look backwards but you look forward as well. in this circumstance you talk about kennedy as the senator of our time. where does he rank? >> it depends on historian. i think i might be able to say that not only is he the greatest legislator of our time, which is what president obama said. he may be the greatest all-around senator of our time. the interesting i think is when then senator john kennedy would have been in the 1950s he created a committee. teddy shares all their qualities. henry clay, the great legislator. daniel webster, the great orator. teddy may not have had that stirring or, atory, but you have

staff and norris and the various progress southeasts who all their lives fought for that cause. he fought for the liberal cause. senator van denburg, he is all of those things. at the same time he made the people in massachusetts feel like he was one of them. i thought when we were sitting vigil during the days that he was taken memorial service, that you want those people to come through, ordinary people. every one of them knew him. governor packard said i knew him before i met him. the people in massachusetts met him. you see the people coming by. they're saluting him. their red sox hat comes on or they're doing the sign of the cross. you talk to them. as kathleen knows, they all have a story. he tells helped my grandmother. he helped my son. he was there. he put all those things together. i think he might be the greatest all-around senator of all time. >> bob, you were so close to him throughout his career, but in that 1980 bid, he addressed it when he was asked by tim russert about not achieving it. i guess he joked. i don't mind not being president. i just mind that somebody else is. he said that all through the 1970s.

he didn't mind that barack obama became president, and i think he played an instrumental role in it. i think he would say that -- he did say that in 1980, he spent too much time thinking whether to run for president and not enough time thinking about what he was going to say when he got out there. the course of least resistance was the lead he had in the polls to make sure he didn't offend anyone. and this led to in the initial stages of the campaign not saying much. well, ted kennedy happened to be the worst politician i ever met in my life at saying nothing. he was maybe the best politician i ever saw as saying something, and actually i think the oratory motivated people, stirred people, gave them a sense of his purpose. a lot of people give good speeches, and i think he gave unbelievable speeches, but then he went and made those speeches become part of the life and fabric of the country. from the americans with disabilities act. there are six million kids in this country that are covered with health insurance today because of him.

the led into law the law to fight apartheid and stop sanctions against south africa. you could put down a list of 50, 60, or 70 gigantically successful pieces of legislation. any senator could claim to one or two of them and say i've had the most extraordinary career. he could claim all of them. >> let me ask you about another aspect of his personal life, the personal struggles in his life. there was supper a poignant letter that he wrote to the pope that was read last night. i want to put a portion of it up on the screen. i am writing with dp to ask as you pray for me as my own health decleans. i was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and although i continue treatment, the disease is taking its toll on me. i am 77 years old and preparing for the next passage of life. i have been blessed to be a part of of a wonderful family and both of my parents, particularly my mother, kept our catholic

faith at the center of our lives. that gift of faith has sustained, nurtured and provide solace to me in the darkest hours. i know that i have been an imperfect human being. but with the help of my faith, i have tried to right my path. kathleen, the imperfect part was very public, chappaquiddick, to the incident of florida in 1991 to other struggles. how did he take stock of that in the end? >> i have to say i think that's one of the great important parts of the catholic faith. we used to joke we were the church of sinners rather than the church of saints, and, therefore, we're all sinners, and you can pray to god and say are you going to believe that i can make something better of my life rather than if you sin you can never come back. that is really what i think the catholic faith is. faith is. you saw that yesterday when the cardinals were there, the

priests were there. they were saying this man is going to heaven because he was there for the least among us, and i think -- i can't remember who said this, but you can't take your own faults and say, oh, i'm so bad. i can't do anything else. some of us feel that we're not worthy, and he wouldn't let that sense of judging himself to stop him from doing something better, and that has great spiritual understanding that i think he shares with -- is an inspiration to people of many faiths. >> bob shrum, you saw this up close. as a public figure, a politician, he had to come to the grips with the fact that the public treated those kinds of in discretions differently in his era than they did in his brother's era, and he had to

adjust to that. >> i think that whatever weaknesses, whatever happened, he had to live it out in public in a way that most people, most of us, would in private. kathleen is right. he never let it interfere with him. there was always for me an incredible sense of character. this was someone who in 1980 everybody said he is bound to win the nomination. he is on his way. nothing will stop him. when things got tough, when he went into the dark alley, he just kept going. he inspired everybody in that campaign. we all ended up not getting paid, i mean, because we had no money. he inspired everybody in that campaign to keep going. he did little things that really mattered and showed incredible generocity of spirit. we were down there in the christmas before when we thought we were going to debate president carter, but it got canceled because the president said he had to take care of the hostage crisis. he knew my parents lived not very far away. he said why don't you have my parents come over and have dinner with my mother and me. my mother, her first reaction was i can't possibly do that. i haven't had my hair fixed. my father said we're going to go. we went over there, and she had broken her leg earlier. he had to advance guys carry her

in the house. they sat with your grandmother and talked about their devotion to the blessed mother for an hour, hour and a half. he showed my father and my nephew around that house and told them everything that had happened, and they could have been the leader of another country the way he treated them. i think he did that with people. you know the crowds people were talking about? i wasn't surprised to see in the lead up to his death and afterwards what journalists said, what historians said, other people said. all those people standing out there somehow or other got it. they got that he had changed their lives, and it was such a privilege to be a small part of that. >> i want to add -- >> you drove by. thank you. thank you. thank you. god bless you. >> to go to your point, hemingway once said that everybody is broken by life, and afterward many are strong in the broken places.

that's all you can ask of a person, that they absorb -- when you look at the letter to the pope, it was a much deeper felt than what was on "meet the press." that sounded more defensive. he had absorbed i think those pains, the imperfections, the things that he did, and all you can do is ask that person to become strong and make up for it by doing everything you can. >> in 1979 we rehearsed that answer, that letter. that letter came from his heart. >> wow. >> can i end on something -- what i have taken from the last few days is the enduring lesson of perseverance, and there's a couple of things i want to show. the aftermath of that crash in 1964 that almost took his life, and you see the determination on his face waving to the crowd after he had been so severely injured. then the image of last year at the convention despite such personal pain, such physical pain. he made a point of being there. i think what was most poignant was the lesson that his son talked about at the funeral

yesterday, that as a kid losing his leg and his dad wanted to take him out to go sledding, and he fell and ride and said i don't think i can do this. this is what he said. >> i fell on the ice, and i started to cry, and i said i can't do this. i said i'll never be able to climb up that hill. he lifted me up in his strong, gentle arms and said something i will never forget. he said i know you can do it. there is nothing that you can't do. we're going to climb that hill together, even if it takes us all day. >> just ten seconds left. that's a legacy. >> it is a legacy. i think it's a legacy of rose and joseph kennedy who said to their children persevere, get something done, make a difference. >> thank you all for sharing your thoughts on what has been an emotionally exhausting past several days. thank you all very much. we'll be back after this brief station break with some final scenes from this weekend.

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that is all for today. we'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press". we'll you now with scenes from this week's fairwell to senator ted kennedy. week's farewell to senator ted kennedy. ♪ >> ted kennedy was the baby of the family. he became a patriarch. a restless dreamer who became its rock. >> he had such a big heart, and he shared that heart with all of us.

>> at the end of the day, it was never about him. he was always about you. a truly remarkable character trait. >> in the end those in repose are grieving as we speak. in the end a darling rose no longer has to see. i will miss my irish friend. god be with you. until we meet again. ♪ >> i looked up, and there was this one star hanging low in the sky that was just bigger than all the rest and brighter than all the rest. he had a twinkle and sparkle all the others.

i know it was jupiter but it was acting a lot like teddy. ♪ was acting a lot like ted ♪ >> the work goes on. >> the work goes on. >> the cause endures. the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die. i love you, dad. i always will, and i miss you already. hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started. i can help you with the paperwork. um... this green line just appeared on my floor.

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a a --acaptions by vitaca-- a a www.vitac.com > the kennedy brothers. they stirred the country's blood and maddened their rivals, bill sapphire, richard nixon's speechwriter put it this way, when you beat a kennedy, you beat the best, but the problem is no one did. following the death of senator edward kennedy, here's the "hardball" political story of how these extraordinary brothers sought the american presidency. >> we have the capacity to make this the best generation.

>> let us offer new hope.